FIX: Entire Structure in DATA Fails to Cause Error

MS-DOS               | OS/2      | WINDOWS NT

The information in this article applies to:

• Microsoft FORTRAN for MS-DOS versions 5.0 and 5.1
• Microsoft FORTRAN for OS/2 versions 5.0 and 5.1
• Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation for MS-DOS versions 1.0 and 1.0a
• Microsoft FORTRAN PowerStation 32 version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

Applications compiled with Microsoft FORTRAN version 5.0 or 5.1 that initialize entire structures in DATA statements may produce incorrect results.

CAUSE

Initializing entire structures in a DATA statement is not permitted (Microsoft FORTRAN version 5.1 "Reference" manual, page 140), but no error or warning is emitted by the compiler. Subsequent use of that structure variable may lead to incorrect results.

RESOLUTION

To initialize structure variables through DATA statements, specify every element of the structure separately.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft FORTRAN versions 5.0 and 5.1 for MS-DOS and OS/2, and version 5.1 for Windows. This problem was corrected in FORTRAN PowerStation version 4.0.

MORE INFORMATION

The following code fails to produce any error message and the resulting output is incorrect:

Sample Code #1

       structure /test/
          integer i
          real    x
       end structure
       record /test/ s
       data s /7/
       print*, s.i, s.x
       end

Sample Code #2

       structure /test/
          integer i
          real    x
       end structure
       record /test/ s
       data s.i /7/, s.x /7.0/
       print*, s.i, s.x
       end